Joe Root & Harry Brook

Neil Whitaker Interview

ENGLAND’s Joe Root believes that the use of the Kookaburra balls in English cricket will make English cricketers better.  

This year the ECB are using the Kookaburra balls in four rounds of the  Vitality County Championship with the hope that players will be more used to it when they play international cricket abroad.

Root said: “A lot of good can come from it if the players put their minds to it.The amount of rain that we’ve had has made it difficult for groundstaffs to produce good wickets which  has  led to slow pitches.

We are going to have to give it more time. It will take time, probably five or six years for people to get used to it. What  the players need to do is to  think about how can they get better using the Kookaburra ball and they  have to be more open minded. We will  have to go through a bit of pain  but the big plus is that players have  scored  big runs with the Kookaburra ball and that’s what you need in Test match cricket. That’s  been brilliant to see.  This is an opportunity for players to upskill.”

Root is enjoying playing county cricket for Yorkshire  before going back to England and hopes to play in the Vitality Blast.  “I  just try to enjoy my game, coming back to Yorkshire and being amongst this group of players. I want to give something back to the club that has given me so much 

I’d like to play a bit of  Blast cricket but I am enjoying the amount of cricket that I am playing.”

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AFTER the second days play with Derbyshire, Yorkshire’s Harry Brook spoke about leaving the England touring party in Abu Dhabi to be with his grandmother who died in February.

He said: “When I came home it was a very tough  time and leaving the tour was a very big decision to make but she came before that so I had to come back but I am glad  because I was with her and the rest of my family.  Both Championship hundreds that I’ve scored this season  are dedicated to her.”

Then he turned his attention to the forthcoming T20 World Cup. “I am looking forward to playing in the T20 World Cup, if selected,  being with the lads again next month and producing the goods again. There  are so many players in this country who are phenomenal at white ball cricket so I think we are in a good place”

Batting with Joe Root against Derbyshire he added 201 for the fourth wicket and Brook said: “It was class, batting with Root. When a bowlers doing something different I would ask him what he would do.  To have the opportunity to play every game with him as I am doing at the moment is a learning curve for me because he is one of the best players to have played the game.”

Brook is still trying to iron his technique out. “I am always striving to improve,  it’s never perfect so  there are a few things that need sorting out.”

He also believes Yorkshire will win promotion to division one. “We’ve got a good enough side to get promoted, we just need to think about other plans to get batters out.  We’ve played on a few slow wickets where the ball isn’t doing as much and it’s soft so we’ve got to figure out different ways to get batters out whether that’s having fielders in front of wickets or trying to bounce them out it’s about creating different opportunities, but it’s  tough on a good  surface 

We’ve got some phenomenal young players like batters Will Luxton and James Wharton in the squad and they are  rearing to go.”  

With the prospect of not too much play  on the third day against Derbyshire, Brook reflected on the second days play: “Today we’ve chucked everything at the Derbyshire players, Wayne Madsen and Brooke Guest  on a fairly docile pitch and for Madsen to come out and with stitches in his hand and bat like he did you can only respect that.”

Brook’s final match Yorkshire before going off with England is next against Glamorgan and he said: “It’s been awesome to play with my mates again, it’s good being back here and I love playing for Yorkshire. I wish I could play more for for Yorkshire.”